


Save You

by JCapasso



Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:46:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27619921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JCapasso/pseuds/JCapasso
Summary: Audrey overheard Nathan's conversation with Duke when Mara needed the Aether to fix him and she wasn't quite so willing to turn her back on Duke when he asked for help. That changed the trouble that Duke let out to one that compelled the truth and quite a few things came to light before he managed to turn it off.
Relationships: Duke Crocker/Audrey Parker/Nathan Wuornos
Comments: 10
Kudos: 14





	Save You

Audrey started to walk towards the ambulance as Nathan’s phone rang, but she hesitated a moment. Long enough to hear Nathan answer with, “Duke, what the hell? Where are you? Do you have Mara?” That made her stop in her tracks. Duke had been on the run, so if he was calling in now, it had to be important. She just wished that she could hear Duke’s side of the conversation.

Duke had expected Nathan to be pissed, so it was no surprise. Nathan never trusted him with anything. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try though. “One, I’m doing the right thing. Two, I’m not telling you that and three…sort of.”

“I don’t have time for this,” Nathan snapped. “Is Mara with you or not?” 

Duke shuffled uncomfortably and glanced back towards the building, trying to figure out if Mara would know what he was answering before he said a quiet, “yeah.” 

“Bring her in,” Nathan ordered. “Audrey’s sick. We need to find out if it has something to do with the separation.” 

“What do you mean, Audrey’s sick? Is it serious?” Duke asked worriedly. This would put a major crimp in his plans. 

“I don’t know, but if we have Mara then we can…” 

“No,” Duke cut him off. If they didn’t know if it was serious or not that meant there was time for her at least and time was something that he was quickly running out of. 

Audrey held out her hand for the phone but Nathan shook his head as he said an incredulous, “what?” to Duke. Audrey huffed and just snatched the phone out of his hand anyway. Duke had always responded better to her. If they really needed Mara to come in, then she would be much better at convincing Duke of that. And if Duke needed help, she would also be much more willing to do so. No way was she going to let Nathan keep handling this when all he and Duke ever seemed to do was wind each other up. Nothing would get solved that way. 

Audrey put the phone to her ear just in time to hear Duke’s response. “Look…I know what I’m doing. And for once, Nathan, I need /your/ help.” 

“Duke, it’s Audrey. Don’t let Mara know you’re talking to me instead of Nathan. What do you need?” she asked. Duke never asked for help. Ever. If he was asking now, she was sure as hell not going to brush him off without even hearing him out. 

Duke felt the ghost of a smile twitch onto his face before he wiped it off and answered. “I need you to bring me some of the Aether so Mara can fix me.” 

“Fix you, how?” Audrey asked. 

“To keep me from kicking out any more dangerous troubles,” Duke replied, forcing irritation into his voice for the sake of Mara who was almost certainly listening carefully. He just hoped Audrey knew that it was an act, but given how she was the one who told him to pretend he was talking to Nathan still, he was sure that she did. 

“You want us to bring her the one thing she needs to open a thinny and take out the entire town?” Audrey asked pointedly. She needed Duke to understand exactly what he was asking for here. 

“I’m the one who can take out Haven,” Duke snapped. “I don’t have any more nice little safe troubles to let out. Next one…is gonna be bad. Mara can stop it.”

“You really think you can trust her to do that?” Audrey asked. 

“I don’t have a choice,” Duke almost whispered. 

“Okay. We’ll bring one piece only. For her to fix you. Text me where you are, but don’t let her know we’re coming yet. I don’t want her to have time to make too many plans…”

“Audrey, you can’t be serious!” Nathan protested. 

Audrey shut him up with a glare. “Just be careful, Duke. We’ll be there as soon as we can.” 

Duke twitched a smile again before wiping it off and turning to where Mara had come out, apparently suspicious, so he looked right at her as he said, “yeah, you’re right. It doesn’t add up. I can’t believe a word that comes out of her mouth.” He was trying to clue her in on whatever game Mara was currently playing in the process. If anyone but Audrey had made that promise he would have assumed it was a lie to make him cough up where he was staying, but Audrey wouldn’t do that. Nathan would. But not Audrey. He hung up and put his phone back in his pocket, trusting his familiarity with it to be able to send the text without looking. He couldn’t remember if his most recent text was with Audrey or Nathan, but it didn’t matter. One of them would get it at least. 

Audrey handed Nathan back his phone with a curious look on her face, trying to figure out what that last comment from Duke had meant. He was clearly trying to tell her something at the same time as letting Mara know she’d won, but what? As she thought it over, Nathan pulled up his text messages, waiting for the text from Duke. First they needed to find out where he was. Then he would argue giving her the Aether. Unfortunately it was Audrey’s phone that went off, just as she figured out what Duke was trying to tell her. “Where is he?” Nathan asked as Audrey looked at her phone. 

“Can I trust you to follow my lead?” Audrey asked him before answering his question. She knew that Nathan disagreed and she wasn’t going to put Duke at risk. 

“And give Mara the one thing she’s been dying to get her hands on this whole time?” Nathan asked incredulously. 

“For Duke,” Audrey said firmly. “The man who always drops everything when we need him but never asks for anything in return. You really want to turn your back on him the one time he actually asks for help?”

“This is different,” Nathan tried to reason with her. “We can’t trust him and we definitely can’t trust Mara. Who knows how deep she’s gotten into his head.”

“She’s trying, but Duke is stronger than that,” Audrey told him. “He clued me in on what she was doing. Trying to convince him that all we do is use him and that when he needs us in return we won’t be there. What do you think would have happened if we’d said no here?” 

“So giving her access to Aether is the better option? If you’re right, then she’s got us right where she wants us. We say no, Duke turns on us and steals it for her anyway, we say yes and she still gets it,” Nathan pointed out. 

“She was counting on /you/ turning him down. She doesn’t know I’m involved yet. That’s where we’re going to make a difference here. He’s going to stall her until we get there with the Aether, but we’re only taking one piece. If she ever wants a chance of seeing any more of it, she has to fix Duke first with that,” Audrey laid out her plan. 

“And if it comes down to either fixing Duke or helping you?” Nathan asked. 

“I have time. Duke doesn’t. We can worry about me after,” Audrey said firmly. “Now are you with me or not?” 

“Fine,” Nathan huffed. “But for the record…this is a bad idea.” 

“Your concern is noted,” Audrey said, heading to the car. The uniforms could handle this. Mara and Duke were more important. They got to the station and pulled the smallest piece of Aether from the vial, leaving the rest there and headed towards Duke. They were gone before the rest of it was stolen. 

“You need to go get the Aether yourself,” Mara said impatiently when he didn’t offer to do so. 

“Won’t matter,” Duke huffed. “As soon as I asked for it, Nathan was always going to move it. I’ll be too late anyway.” 

“So not only will he not help you, he won’t even give you a chance to help yourself? He trusts you that little?” Mara asked, resisting the urge to smirk. This was working out even better than she thought. 

“Nathan’s never trusted me,” Duke snapped. “I thought he at least cared though. More fool me.” He had to play this up. Make her think she won to stall for time. The next little while was spent trying to figure out a plan to get it, but Duke was running out of time and couldn’t help doubling over in pain. 

“You have to release a trouble, Duke. How much longer do you think you have left?” Mara asked. She had a suspicion of what trouble his abandonment issues would release, and that would be the final nail in his coffin. 

“Not long enough,” he groaned. “I really wish you were someone else right now,” he couldn’t help but say. What the hell was taking them so long?

“Why?” Mara asked, only getting an incredulous look in return. “Well I’m not. But I’m here,” she reached over and took his hand. “So you’re just going to have to make due.”

Duke resisted the urge to snatch his hand away. She really should know better than to try and con a conman. Obviously she was trying to set herself up as the only person he could count on. Too bad for her, she wasn’t. He would keep playing the game though. Audrey and Nathan couldn’t be far by now. When he started coughing up blood, he knew he was out of time. “Help me let out something harmless,” he half-asked, half-ordered. If she really wanted to turn him, she should be willing to do that. If nothing else, just to draw him deeper and making him feel more indebted to her.

“Okay,” Mara agreed, trying to seem more worried than smug. 

“Something that won’t hurt people,” Duke clarified, just to make sure there was no misunderstanding. 

“Okay,” she said again, moving her hand to the back of his neck gently. “Concentrate on what you really want. Not to hurt anyone. Then let your blood hit the floor.”

He turned his hand and just as the drops hit the floor he heard a car driving up. He barely managed to be fast enough to recuff her to the bed they were sitting on before she heard it too and bolted. If she would have bolted at all, of course, but he wasn’t going to take that risk. He had no idea what he just released. He knew better than most that just because he couldn’t see the results didn’t mean they didn’t happen. He could only hope that it wasn’t bad and that she’d been telling the truth about how to avoid hurting anyone. 

“Duke? What are you doing? Who’s here? I thought we were friends now,” Mara said, trying to keep her nerves out of her voice. 

Duke just ignored her and went to the door. “Do you have it?” he asked as he opened the door. 

Audrey held out the Aether and only hesitated a moment before putting it in Duke’s hand. “I trust you not to give this to her without guarantees,” she told him. 

Duke smiled brightly and nodded as he opened the door and let them in. “You!” Mara snarled, realizing that she had been played. “You always have to screw up my plans.” She had no doubt that if it hadn’t been for Audrey the plan would have worked. Clearly Duke had abandonment issues and Nathan never would have given Duke what he wanted.

“Oh, you mean your plan to make me feel like everyone else abandoned me and that you were the only person who cared?” Duke mocked. “Yeah, I’m not that gullible. My only question is why?” 

“Because you have to be a lot more broken for you to transform,” the words were pulled from her against her will. Damnit. If she had known that he wasn’t falling for it, she would never have let him release a trouble. 

“Transform into what? How was this supposed to work?” Duke asked disgustedly, not noticing the strange look that Audrey and Nathan shot each other at the ease of getting that answer from her. 

“Your fear of abandonment was supposed to release a trouble that would push me to abandon you too. When I didn’t, you would have reigned it back in and fallen for me, giving me the last ammunition to push you completely over the edge,” Mara grit her teeth. 

Duke smirked and stepped over beside Audrey. “But you didn’t count on the fact that there is someone who /actually/ wouldn’t abandon me. So what trouble did I release then, if not the one you intended?” 

“Apparently one that compels the truth,” she snapped, fighting against the cuff around her ankle. 

“I don’t remember one of those in the journal,” Duke said suspiciously. 

“Because it’s a new one. You’re growing new troubles inside you.”

“How? Why?” Duke had no problems using this trouble to get the answers that he needed from her. 

“It’s the first stage of your transformation. Once you complete it, you’ll give new troubles to anyone you touch. Unless, of course, I die. And then you’ll explode all those new troubles, thousands of them, and release them to everyone at once,” Mara explained. Just because she had to tell the truth didn’t mean that she couldn’t mislead them with it. 

“What if you die before he completes the transformation?” Audrey asked, having picked up on the grey area. 

Mara opened her mouth to answer, but Duke raised a hand to stop her and re-asked the question himself. He wasn’t sure if Audrey asking would have the same truth compulsion and this was too important not to be sure. Mara growled at Duke as the words were pulled from her. “If I die before the transformation is finished, then he and his trouble will go back to normal. The way it was before I tweaked it.” 

“Were you really going to use the Aether to fix me?” Duke asked. 

“No,” Mara had to admit. “I was going to use it to speed up the creation of the troubles in you.” 

Nathan resisted the urge to say ‘I told you so’ and instead turned to the other big question since that one was settled. “Do you know why Audrey’s sick? Can you help her?” 

“Nope. Not a clue,” Mara smirked. 

Duke had only let her answer so he could find out whether he had to ask the question or not. Now it was his turn. “So you really don’t have any idea?” 

Mara’s face twitched in annoyance. “I would have to know exactly what’s wrong with her first.”

“It’s…complete cellular degeneration,” Audrey admitted with a wince, unable to look at either Nathan or Duke. She couldn’t handle the pain that would be on their faces. 

Nathan was just frozen, but Duke took a few deep breaths for calm before turning to Mara. “Do you know why? Can you help her?” 

“It’s because she’s not a real person. You made a copy of me, but I’m not human so it didn’t take completely, and the body is breaking down now,” Mara chuckled. Maybe this would be the thing that broke him without her help. 

“Can. You. Help. Her?” Duke asked tightly, tired of beating around the bush. Both Nathan and Audrey nearly stopped breathing waiting for the answer. 

“Maybe. But I’d need a /lot/ of Aether,” Mara said with a grin, knowing that she had them now. Neither of them would let Audrey die for anything. They would give her anything she wanted, and for once the truth was actually on her side. 

Mara was so enjoying the looks on Duke’s and Nathan’s faces that she didn’t notice Audrey drawing her gun until the shot went off. As Mara fell to the floor, Nathan cried out, “No!” and rushed over to try and stop the bleeding. 

“What the hell? Audrey, why would you do that?” Duke asked incredulously, looking between her and Mara. 

“Because I love you, Duke. And I don’t want to be saved if you’re the cost,” Audrey couldn’t help but say. 

“What do you…wh…but…” Duke sputtered. 

“She said she could /maybe/ help me. Which means either way it would have taken time. Time that she could use to force you to complete your transformation. This way, you’re free.” 

“She’s gone,” Nathan said with a sigh, sitting back away from her and willing the tears from his eyes. That meant Audrey would be too. Her loving Duke didn’t make that hurt any less. 

“But…you love Nathan,” Duke furrowed his brow confusedly. “You chose Nathan.” 

“I do love Nathan. I love you both,” Audrey told him. “I chose you first…in Colorado…but you pulled away.” 

“But…” Duke tried to make sense of this before realizing that Nathan was right there and he turned to him. “I-I’m sorry, Nate. I…”

“It’s okay,” Nathan told him, the words being forced from him too. “I always knew she loved you. Just like I know you love her. That never bothered me. And if she would rather have you, I can be okay with that too. I want you to be happy just as much as I want her to be happy.” 

“But why…you know what…never mind. Don’t answer that,” Duke said firmly, realizing that he was still compelling the truth. “This is not the right way to have this conversation. First we need to get this truth trouble turned off. Then we find a way to save Audrey. Then all three of us can sit down and talk about this.” 

“Shouldn’t the trouble have disappeared when Mara died?” Nathan asked confused. “She said that you would go back to normal, which should mean that you don’t have this trouble.”

“Maybe because it was already on, it stuck?” Audrey suggested. 

“But would that mean that he’ll always have two troubles or…” Nathan tried to wrap his head around it. “Is that even possible?”

“I think we’ve figured out by now that anything is possible,” Duke muttered. 

“Well the way the troubles usually work when he expels them is that they’re completely gone once they’re off, so maybe that part will stay the same?” Audrey hoped. 

“That would be a blessing,” Nathan huffed. He hated not having any control over his own words, and didn’t particularly like what had been pulled from him already. 

“So you’re the expert. How do I turn it off?” Duke asked Audrey. 

“How were you feeling when it started? What were you thinking of?” Audrey asked him. 

“I was frustrated. She was playing her game and I was trying to figure it out. I…wanted to know why.”

“You wanted the truth from her,” Audrey pointed out. 

“So…what? Just not want the truth anymore?” Duke asked. “I’ve already tried that. I don’t want to compel the truth from you two or anyone else.”

“Are you sure about that?” Nathan asked. “I mean…there’s been some revelations here. Some part of you must want to know.”

“Yeah. Of course, I want to get to the bottom of this, but you’re my friends. Forcing you to tell the truth against your will isn’t the way I want it,” Duke snapped. 

“It’s okay, Duke. I know,” Audrey said gently, trying to calm him. She was sure that Nathan hadn’t meant it the way that Duke had taken it too. “But I also know that some part of you believed her when she said she cared and that she could help you. Even if it was just because you didn’t have a choice. You said you were frustrated. Maybe you still are. But with yourself. For letting yourself believe her.” 

“Maybe I’m just tired of being a doormat,” Duke huffed, turning away to look out the window. 

Audrey followed and put a hand on his shoulder. “You’re not a doormat, Duke. You have to know that. You were desperate and you only had one chance. How could you not take it? That’s not being a doormat. That’s being strong. It’s not giving up even when it seems like all hope is lost. You kept fighting the only way you could.” 

Duke took a few deep breaths and let her words sink in before turning back around. “How do I know it’s gone?” 

Audrey grinned. “It’s gone. I felt no compulsion to answer that question.”

Duke turned to Nathan with a smirk. He had to test it to be sure. “Hey Nathan…why did Jenny Malone dump her lunch all over you in sixth grade?” 

Nathan narrowed his eyes at Duke, and said, “There is zero chance of me ever telling you that.” 

Duke laughed happily. “It’s over. Thank god. Now we just have to hope that Audrey was right and it stays gone.” 

Nathan’s phone rang and when he pulled it out of his pocket he winced. “It’s Dwight. He’s gonna be pissed.”

“Just tell him we bailed to get Mara. He’ll understand.”

“And me?” Duke asked worriedly. 

Nathan didn’t answer Duke’s question before answering the phone. Letting it go to voicemail would just make matters worse. “We got Mara. She’s dead,” Nathan said as soon as he picked up before Dwight could start yelling. “Duke called us in. He thought playing along with her would help us get the truth and it did.” 

Duke let out a sigh of relief and Audrey reached over to give his shoulder a comforting squeeze. “You must know that neither of us would ever throw you under the bus,” she whispered. Duke hadn’t known that. Not when it came to Nathan. But then there was what he said earlier and that just had him confused. He hated being confused, but there were more important things to worry about right now. 

Nathan hung up the phone and told them, “So a lot of news. First, they got the trouble that we were working on under control.”

“That’s good,” Audrey sighed with relief. 

“Wait…you were working a trouble case and you just dropped it to come out here?” Duke asked incredulously. 

Nathan, surprisingly, was the one to answer. Learning what was going on made him take Audrey’s admonishment to heart and if he was going to have to lose Audrey, he couldn’t handle losing Duke too. Not after everything they’d been through. “How many times have you dropped everything when we asked for your help? How could we not do the same for you?” 

“You didn’t seem so eager to help before Audrey took the phone,” Duke scoffed. 

“Because I was worried and on edge. Audrey’s sick and you were missing and who knew what Mara was doing to you…” Nathan trailed off, realizing that all the reasons in the world didn’t make it right. “I’m sorry. I should have trusted you regardless.” 

“Uh-huh…” Duke said skeptically before tabling that discussion for now. “Whatever. We need to try and find a way to save Audrey.”

“Which brings me to the next piece of news,” Nathan jumped in, not missing the light of hope in their eyes. It turns out the doctor from the CDC…isn’t really a doctor from the CDC. Whatever not-human Mara was, she’s the same.” Nathan left out that she was Mara’s mother. That would just put them as on edge as he was wondering how she would take the death of her daughter.

“You have /got/ to be kidding me!” Duke threw up his hands. “We get rid of one psycho bitch now we have another to contend with?” 

“No, not like that,” Nathan shook his head. “We don’t think anyway. Supposedly, she was the one who designed the barn and kept sending Mara back here with new identities to help with the troubles as penance. When it all went wrong, she came here to help herself.”

“And we believe that?” Audrey asked. 

“Dwight and Vince do. And she does /seem/ to be genuine. For now, we’ll just keep our eyes and ears open,” Nathan suggested, getting tight nods from Duke and Audrey. 

Duke felt a lot better that she wasn’t really CDC at least. No chance of ending up in cages. He just hoped that she really was here to help. “So let’s go talk to her. See if she can help Audrey since Mara seemed to think it was possible.” 

“Wait…before we do that…I think we should talk,” Audrey said. 

“That can wait,” Nathan shook his head. 

“No, Nathan. Please. We don’t know if it’ll work and I don’t know how much time I have left. I need to know that we’re okay. That we’re all okay. I can’t…I can’t die without…”

Duke was always the more demonstrative of them, and Nathan had already sort of answered her question while under the truth compulsion so he just put both of his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eye. “We’re good, Audrey. No matter what else happens in the future, more than anything else, you’re still my best friend and there is /no/ truth that could change that.” 

Audrey gave a watery smile and hugged him tightly before turning to Nathan. “Nathan, I…”

“We’re good, Parker. We have a lot to figure out obviously, but whatever comes of it, we’re still good,” Nathan assured her, getting a hug of his own. 

“Are you guys good with each other too?” Audrey asked pointedly. She couldn’t stand to leave them behind if they were going to be at each other’s throats over the fact that she loved them both. 

“Audrey, we’ve both known that we both love you for a long time, and clearly he knew that you love us both even if I didn’t. If we were going to have an issue over it, it would have happened already,” Duke rolled his eyes. 

“What he said,” Nathan chuckled when Audrey looked to him. 

“Now that’s settled, let’s go make sure that you stay alive so we can all /stay/ good, shall we?” Duke said waving them towards the door impatiently. 

“We need to take Mara’s body with us,” Nathan told them as he bent to pick it up. 

“Just…promise me, both of you…that we’ll all sit down and have a real talk once all this is over?” Audrey asked hopefully. 

“I promise,” Duke assured her, and Nathan nodded too. Nathan was probably the most nervous about it, but he knew it was necessary. Not only did he have the most to lose, but he had always been so much more reserved than Duke. 

Mara’s body went in the back of Duke’s truck and he followed Audrey and Nathan back to town. A call to Dwight and he brought Charlotte out. They didn’t want to have this conversation in the hospital. If things went bad, being away from all the sick and injured people was best. When Charlotte saw Mara’s body, she broke down in tears. “Mara…oh my sweet daughter…I’m so sorry…” 

“Daughter?!” Audrey gasped. 

Charlotte looked up at Audrey in confusion and then back down at Mara. “What happened?” she had to ask, whether about her daughter’s death or the look-a-like, she wasn’t sure. She supposed that she would take either answer. 

“I shot her,” Duke said quickly. “She was…”

“Duke, stop,” Audrey said firmly, looking seriously at Charlotte. “I was the one who shot her. She had started some kind of transformation in Duke. Making him a trouble factory or something. When she admitted that the only way to stop it was for her to die before it was finished, I killed her.” 

“Audrey…” Duke hissed. 

“No, Duke,” she shook her head. “I will /not/ let you take the punishment for my actions. Especially not since I’m already dead.”

“But if she could have helped you…Mara said it was possible…” Nathan tried to argue. 

That was all Charlotte needed to hear to know exactly who to believe. If Mara had even hinted that she could save Audrey, neither of those men would have ever shot her. “I’m not going to punish anyone,” she spoke up, wiping her tears. “My daughter died five hundred years ago. I kept hoping that…living these new, good lives would…reawaken the goodness in her, but…but it never worked.” She took a few deep breaths, brushing the hair back from Mara’s face before turning to Audrey. “You are very much like the daughter I used to have and if I can help you, I will.” 

“You will?” Audrey asked hopefully. 

“Yes. But I need to understand why you’re sick before I’ll know if it’s possible. Clearly something happened to separate you from her, but…”

“I used a trouble that should have brought back a past life to the forefront of her brain to try and get Audrey back. We don’t know why or how it made a whole other person,” Duke told her. 

“Mara said that Audrey was a copy, but since Mara wasn’t human, Duke couldn’t make a perfect copy so now her body is shutting down,” Nathan added. 

Charlotte nodded and tried to figure that into her calculations, going through a few different ideas and everyone just waited for her to think. “Okay, so there are a few options,” she finally said. “The first option is to, sort of…perfect…her current body. The problem with that is that it will take a lot of Aether to do it and I don’t see how we could possibly get enough. Unlike the gollums that Mara can make with a small amount of the Aether, she would need to be able to function independently and it could even cause a dependence on a steady supply of Aether to keep her functioning since it would be a part of her body.” 

“Yeah, let’s come back to that as a last resort. You said a few options?” Duke asked. He was well familiar with the tactic of giving the worst option first to make the best bad option seem better. 

“The other option would be to refuse her with Mara’s body. Since Mara is dead…she’ll be the only one in there,” Charlotte told them. 

“But she wouldn’t be able to survive that wound,” Nathan pointed out. 

“That’s where the hard part comes in. I could heal it. If I had some Aether. That would only take a small amount, but…” she looked at Dwight. 

“But the vial of Aether was stolen from the safe. Unless…” Dwight looked at Duke and Nathan. 

“I only took one piece and left the rest,” Nathan said worriedly. 

“Do you still have that one piece?” Charlotte asked. 

“But if you need it for your research…we can’t just give up on the whole town to save one life,” Dwight said with an apologetic look at Audrey. 

“Dwight’s right. If it can help you cure all the troubles, then that’s what you should use it for,” Audrey said, holding up a hand to stop Nathan’s protest. “No,” she snapped at him. “It’s /my/ decision and this time you /will/ respect it.” She glared at him until he looked away before turning to Duke who hung his head and nodded. She hadn’t really been worried about Duke though. He had always respected her decisions. He’d been the one to try and stop Nathan from interfering with the barn. 

“That might not be necessary,” Charlotte told them. “It depends on how big the piece is. I may be able to do both.”

Duke pulled the ball of Aether out of his pocket to hand to her. “Duke!” Nathan hissed grabbing his hand and pulling it back. 

“I risked everything trusting Mara to save my own life, Nate. Do you really think I wouldn’t do the same for Audrey?” 

Nathan visibly struggled for a moment before nodding curtly and letting go of Duke’s hand so he could give the Aether to Charlotte who looked it over. “This is enough for both. It’s a very powerful substance. To heal a wound in this body, will only take about a quarter of this.” 

“We should do this inside,” Dwight told them, reaching in to lift Mara’s body and take it to the morgue for some privacy. He did intentionally walk by a few guard members on the way. Making sure they knew that Audrey and Mara were two separate people and that Mara was dead would only make things easier in this town. 

“This isn’t going to make her part Aether and jonesing for the stuff like the other option is it?” Duke thought to ask, grabbing Charlotte’s wrist before she started. 

“No. Healing a wound is much simpler than completely sustaining an unsustainable body on the substance,” Charlotte assured them. 

“Okay,” Duke said relieved before letting her continue and stepping back. 

Charlotte pinched off a small piece of the Aether and pressed it into the wound before pressing her hand tightly over it. No one could see anything happening, but when Charlotte pulled her hand back, the body looked as good as new. “Give me your hand Audrey?” she reached out and Audrey only hesitated for a moment before doing so. 

This time there was a pulse that threw Duke, Nathan, and Dwight backwards against the wall and knocked them out for a few seconds and when they got back up, Audrey was gone and the body on the table was waking up. Nathan was the first to recover, not feeling the pain of getting slammed across the room, and rushed over just as she opened her eyes. “Parker?” he asked hopefully. 

“Yeah,” she smiled, reaching a hand to his cheek. “It’s me, Nathan.” She sat up and pulled him in for a tight hug. After a moment, she reached her hand out to Duke who seemed to be waiting his turn and pulled him into a group hug, and Duke didn’t hesitate to wrap his arms around both Audrey and Nathan only for Nathan to jump and jerk away. 

Duke quickly wiped the hurt look off his face at that, but Nathan noticed it. “That’s not…I mean…I felt you,” Nathan said confused. 

“Huh?” Duke asked confusedly before tentatively reaching out a hand to Nathan again. 

Nathan took Duke’s hand and looked even more confused. “Nothing. But I could have sworn…” 

“Hang on,” Audrey started forming a suspicion and reached out to take Duke’s other hand. 

Nathan’s eyes widened. “Now I feel it. How is that…I mean…before it didn’t…”

“I don’t think we ever tried it before,” Audrey pointed out. “Maybe it always could have done that.” 

“Chief?” Nathan asked, pulling his hand away from Duke and reaching for Dwight. He wanted to see if it would work with other people too. 

Dwight hesitated a moment before shrugging and taking Nathan’s hand like he was going to shake it and letting Audrey take his other hand. “This is kinda weird,” he couldn’t help but say. 

“Even more so since I don’t feel anything,” Nathan said with a sigh. “So it’s just Duke that it works with?” 

When all eyes in the room turned to Charlotte for answers, she shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know nearly enough about the troubles and how Mara set them up yet to have any kind of theory.” 

“Maybe…um…” Audrey was working on one, but hesitated saying anything in front of other people. 

“I should go get to work, now that I have some Aether to work with,” Charlotte said, realizing that this was more of a private matter.

“And I need to get started tracking down who stole the rest of it,” Dwight said, making quickly for the door. 

“And we are not having this conversation in a morgue,” Duke said firmly once they were alone. 

“The Rouge?” Audrey suggested. She knew that Nathan was too embarrassed about his house to like having company there, and her apartment would be a little too intimate. Since the Cape Rouge was docked pretty much right next to her apartment, and wasn’t as public as The Gull, it was the best option. 

“Sounds good to me. Nate?” Duke asked. 

“Yeah. That works,” Nathan nodded. Duke headed straight there, but Nathan and Audrey detoured to the station so that Audrey could pick up her car. It was a short silent ride. They both had a lot on their minds. 

Once they got back to the Rouge, Duke had three drinks waiting on them, knowing that they would probably need them. He had sat himself on the couch instead of his normal chair, letting them decide on the furniture configuration and Audrey went over and brought his chair over in front of the couch, close enough to reach out and touch them, and sat in it herself, leaving the other side of the couch for Nathan. As soon as they were settled, Nathan was the first to speak. “I have a theory on why it only works for Duke.”

“Oh?” Duke asked with a raised eyebrow. “What theory is that?” 

“I think it’s because you triggered my trouble in the first place,” Nathan told him. 

“I did /what/?!” Duke sat up straight not sure whether to believe him and be horrified or accuse him of blaming Duke for everything that goes wrong. 

“You didn’t know?” Nathan scoffed disbelievingly. “That fight we had after you came back to town?”

“That’s when it started? That’s what triggered it?” Duke asked, now settling into horrified. 

“You really didn’t know?” Nathan asked confused. He’d thought that Duke just didn’t care. 

“No…I didn’t…Nate, I…I’m sorry…I just…Jesus,” Duke ran a hand through his hair on that last word. “No wonder you hate me so much.” Audrey sat back with a sad smile, staying out of this. It was about time they talked this out. 

“That’s not why I hated you, Duke,” Nathan admitted. “Well, not the only reason anyway.” 

“Then what…unless you mean that argument before I left, but…” Duke was confused. He thought that was over and done with. 

“No. Not because of the argument. Because you actually /left/. And you didn’t come back for over ten years,” Nathan huffed. He knew where this whole conversation was probably going, and he knew that if it was ever going to work then this had to be hashed out, much as he hated it. 

“You /told/ me to leave,” Duke said incredulously. “You said that you and this town would be better off without me. You said you never wanted to see me again. I thought I was doing you a /favor/. I thought that’s why you were pissed when I came back.” 

“Damnit Duke, I was just upset. Haven’t you ever said something you didn’t mean when you were upset? I know you have. You’ve done it to me often enough,” Nathan snapped heatedly. 

Audrey reached out and took Nathan’s hand to calm him before doing the same to Duke in a more comforting manner, knowing that she needed to mediate now. “But you were so used to people meaning it, weren’t you,” she asked Duke gently. She had picked up on his abandonment issues a long time ago. She didn’t really get much of the reason behind them. He didn’t exactly talk about it, but you don’t get issues like that for no reason. Someone…probably a lot of someones…had hurt him. 

“Everyone always meant it. I get a little bit of happiness and then I wear out my welcome and have to move on. That’s just life,” Duke shrugged, not looking at either of them. 

Audrey furrowed her brow as she reached a conclusion. From what Nathan said before about wanting Duke to be happy just as much as he wanted her to be happy and now this conversation… “You two were together?” She caught the expression on both faces that told her she was right. “How did I never hear about that?” 

“Because no one else knew,” Nathan told her. 

“Because /someone/ insisted on keeping it secret,” Duke said accusingly. 

“Is that what the fight was about? The first one when Duke left, I mean?” she asked, picking up the vibes. 

“No,” Nathan said at the same time as Duke said, “Yes.” 

“Wait…it was?” Nathan asked confused. 

“Obviously…what did you think I meant when I said I was tired of being a dirty little secret?” Duke scoffed. 

“That you were dumping me, of course,” Nathan replied. 

“And if you had known what I meant?” Duke asked pointedly. 

“I…don’t know,” Nathan shrugged. “I…I l-loved you…but…coming out like that…I don’t know.” 

“I never understood why you cared so much about what other people thought,” Duke shook his head ruefully. 

“I don’t either anymore,” Nathan admitted. He started to reach out a hand to Duke before pulling back. Duke didn’t notice, too busy studying the deck, but Audrey did. She nodded at him and gave him an encouraging look, so Nathan reached out again, hesitating a moment before he put his hand on Duke’s shoulder. When his thumb brushed over Duke’s jaw, it was only partially because of the novelty of being able to feel it. At least as long as Audrey was touching Duke too. 

Duke sucked in a sharp breath at the contact and spun to look at Nathan, trying to decipher what he was thinking by his eyes. He was surprised at how open they were. Nathan had made being difficult to read into an art form. Duke cut his eyes over to Audrey who smiled and nodded so he looked back at Nathan. “And now?” he breathed out. 

“I don’t care anymore,” Nathan all but whispered. 

Duke swallowed heavily before reaching a hand to Nathan’s cheek, leaning forward slightly with another glance at Audrey to make sure he wasn’t overstepping with her either, but she just smiled wider and squeezed both their hands encouragingly. Duke gripped her hand, not wanting her to let go. If he was going to do this, he needed Nathan to be able to feel it. He only hesitated another moment before his lips met Nathan’s. Nathan melted into the kiss, hand trailing from Duke’s shoulder to the back of his neck, marveling at the feeling of skin and the soft strands of hair sliding through his fingers, but even more at the feel of Duke’s lips. 

Nathan had been so long without feeling that the tiny differences between Duke and Audrey were glaringly obvious. He could feel the rougher texture to Duke’s skin brought on by hard labor and countless hours in the sun. The thicker hair that was somehow just as soft. The feel of Duke’s facial hair and the toughness of his lips. It was almost like coming home again. Duke’s large calloused hand moved over Nathan’s cheek to his neck over his shoulder and down his chest. God he had missed this so much. Duke was the one to pull away first, looking between Nathan and Audrey curiously, eyes asking the question that he so desperately needed the answer to. 

Audrey knew what he was asking, but they had a past that needed to be sorted too, despite how short it was. “W-was Nathan right before? When he said that you…you loved me?” She knew that he had sort of confirmed it afterwards, but she needed to be sure. 

“Yeah,” Duke admitted, giving her most of his attention, but stealing glances back at Nathan to see how he was taking this, only to find him actually smiling. Nathan didn’t smile often, so that meant something and Duke was finally starting to think that he might be able to have this. 

“Then why did you pull back like you did in Colorado?” she asked. 

“I could sense your hesitation. I figured it was because of Nathan, and I just…I didn’t want to be the one to take the chance away from him if it was,” Duke admitted. 

“My hesitation was because I knew I would be leaving in less than three weeks and I wasn’t sure that starting anything with /anyone/ was a good idea,” she told him. “I…I wanted you to come after me…when I went to get some air,” she admitted, knowing that laying it all out on the table like this was the only way it could work if this was going where she hoped it was. 

“So he was your first choice,” Nathan said, not really sure how he felt about that, but knowing that he wasn’t actually upset about it though. 

“Only because you were so standoffish. You were…hard to reach. Duke was always just so…open. And I know I’m not the most open person either, but it’s easier with him,” Audrey tried to explain. 

“So if you had to choose…” 

“Stop,” Duke said firmly, pulling both sets of eyes back to him. “If I’m reading where this is headed right…that is not a fair question for any of us to be asking each other.” 

“You’re right,” Nathan nodded. He knew that he wouldn’t want to answer it himself. He didn’t know if he /could/ answer it himself and had a feeling that Duke and Audrey would feel the same way. “Forget I mentioned it.” 

“I can’t /forget/ it,” Audrey told him. “Because if we just drop it there, you’ll always wonder. But I can’t choose. I don’t want to choose. If you both tell me I have to, then I will, but I hope you don’t.” 

“I don’t need you to choose,” Duke shook his head. “Nate?” 

“Well given that I don’t want to choose either, I would be kind of a hypocrite if I asked you to,” he huffed a laugh. 

Audrey gave a yelp of surprise as Duke yanked her arm hard enough to pull her onto the couch and there was some laughter as she switched the hands she was holding theirs with to turn around the right way on the couch. “So we’re really doing this then? The three of us?” Duke asked hopefully. 

“Seems like it, yeah,” Audrey said softly, letting go of Duke’s hand to touch his cheek, getting lost in those fathomless brown eyes. 

“A-and you’re both really sure that this is what you want?” he asked, tearing his eyes away from Audrey’s and looking between her and Nathan. They had a relationship already. They were already a thing. He didn’t want to intrude. He didn’t think he could handle it if they changed their minds. Not after getting a taste of everything he’d ever wanted. 

When Nathan just nodded, Audrey knew that Duke needed more than that. She could see the fear and desperation in his eyes, so she decided to try and find the words, hoping that they wouldn’t ruin everything. That she and Nathan were on the same page here. “Nathan and I are good together, but…there’s always been something missing. Something…not quite right,” she said hesitantly, glancing over at Nathan to make sure that she wasn’t the only one who felt that way and trying to get him to say something to make Duke feel better about this too. 

“Like she said…neither of us are very…open. There’s just…always been this kind of wall between us. We don’t…communicate as well as we should. She’s right. Something has always been missing. I…I think it’s you.” 

“You’re our missing piece, Duke. We need you to round us out. To remind us to loosen up and have fun sometimes. To bring us out of our shells. You…you would complete us. If…If that’s what you want…” 

Duke closed his eyes against the wash of emotion as he nodded slowly. When he felt soft lips against his, he melted into it, leaning into the rougher hand that brushed over his cheek as his hand that wasn’t on Audrey’s waist found Nathan’s hair as Nathan pressed a line of soft kisses over Audrey’s neck. He kissed her slow and deep for a long moment before moving his lips to the other side of her neck. Audrey leaned back to give him better access and capture Nathan in a deep kiss as well. When Nathan and Duke found each other’s lips after that, Audrey kissed anything of either of them she could reach, but made sure to keep some kind of contact with Duke the whole time so that Nathan could still feel him. 

“Do we wanna go downstairs?” Duke asked breathlessly once his lips were free. 

“God, yes,” Nathan breathed out as Audrey couldn’t do more than nod. Duke got up and took one of each of their hands, walking backwards and leading them to his bedroom, knowing that his bed was plenty big enough for three. 

An hour later, the three of them were laying in bed, Duke in the middle with Nathan and Audrey curled up to either side of him, when Audrey brought back the start of this conversation. “I don’t think you being able to feel Duke has anything to do with how your trouble was triggered.”

“Then why?” Duke asked confused. 

“All the troubles are rooted in emotions,” Audrey tried to lead them to the answer. 

“So you think it’s because I love him,” Nathan realized. 

“Do you?” Duke asked hesitantly turning his head towards Nathan. 

Nathan rolled his eyes. “You know how much I love Audrey and I said that I couldn’t choose between you and her. You really have to ask?” 

Duke smiled brightly and leaned down to press a short kiss to Nathan’s lips. “Me too.” 

It was Audrey’s turn to roll her eyes with a muttered, “Boys,” as she shook her head, both exasperated and amused. 

“I much prefer /men/ thank you,” Duke joked with a fake indignant look. 

“I think I’m with Duke on this one,” Nathan chimed in. 

“Oh, so this is how it’s gonna be, is it? You two ganging up on me?” Audrey laughed. 

“Now that sounds like a fun idea,” Duke waggled his eyebrows, pulling laughs from all three of them. 

“Yeah, okay. You’re not wrong about that part. But I’m still calling you my boys,” she smirked. 

Duke gave a theatrical sigh and looked at Nathan. “Even two on one, we can’t win.” 

Nathan chuckled and waved a hand over the three of them as he said, “Looks like we all win to me.” 

“You’ve definitely got a point there,” Duke grinned, kissing each of them in turn. “You’re staying tonight, right?” 

“If you think I’m getting out of this bed one minute before I have to, then you’re nuts,” Audrey muttered, snuggling deeper against Duke. Not only was this the most comfortable bed she’d ever known in her life, but she always slept so well on this boat the few times she’d fallen asleep here. She wasn’t sure if it was the boat or the owner of the boat, but that didn’t really matter anymore. 

“What she said,” Nathan agreed, voice rough with exhaustion. It had been an insanely long day. Troubles, Duke on the run, saving Duke, killing Mara, healing Audrey, now this. If someone had told him this morning where this day would end he would have called them crazy, but he didn’t think he’d ever been this happy. Not with Audrey, and not when he’d been with Duke before. Just like something had been missing with he and Audrey, something had also been missing between him and Duke. This right here was perfect. 

Duke wondered how he’d ever gotten so lucky. He would almost be willing to thank Mara for playing him and pushing him into the events that led to this, but decided that he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. He knew that this wouldn’t last. Not for him. Nathan and Audrey probably would. Once he taught them how to loosen up and get out of their shells, he would have served his purpose. He would most definitely enjoy this while it lasted though and soak up as much as he could before they left him just like everyone else did. 

Audrey pressed a kiss to Duke’s shoulder as her arm draped over his stomach and trailed over Nathan’s arm. If she had ever dreamed that she could have them both before, she would have jumped all over it from the start. She blamed them for keeping the fact that they were both bi and had been together in the past a secret. If she had known that then the possibility would have dawned on her before now. God they had missed so much time. It amazed her how perfectly the three of them fit together. Duke really was the balance that she and Nathan had needed. She didn’t think she could live without either one of them. 

All three were asleep within minutes, thoughts more pleasant than they had been in a long time. They just had a feeling, for once, that everything was going to be okay. They could make it through anything as long as they had each other. No matter how badly the town was falling apart around them.

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting on my hard drive as is for over a month before I finally realized that this was as far as my muse was going to get.


End file.
